"We have become a nation of magical thinkers"

[marmar]

Law professor: Virus reveals we all need a class in evidence

LEN NIEHOFF | DETROIT FREE PRESS
11:59 a.m. EDT May 5, 2020


Numerous public officials and individuals have made dreadful decisions about how to assess and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19. Those errors reveal a fundamental flaw in our K-12 and collegiate education systems.

We have failed to teach a subject of critical importance, and as a result have imperiled our health, our economy, and our republic.

We teach it in law school. We call it Evidence.

....(snip)....

COVID-19 has revealed our societal failure to understand what evidence is and to respect how it works. National and local political leaders have made decisions that ignored the evidence. Members of the general public have proved slow to accept the evidence. Measures adopted to help flatten the curve have been met with virulent protests, despite the evidence that they are working."

....(snip)....

We have become a nation of magical thinkers, making decisions based on what we hope is the case and whom we want to believe. When confronted with opposing evidence, we do not engage with it. We dismiss it and stick a label on it: “fake,” “phony,” “biased,” etc. And then we mistake that label for evidence. .........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2020/05/05/coronavirus-evaluating-evidence/3083768001/

[stopbush]

1. As long as most Americans subscribe to the magical thinking espoused by Christianity

we are not going to make meaningful progress in having evidence more highly regarded than fantasy.

[Walleye]

3. So true. People believe that their lives will go on after they die. Denying the truth of mortality

[stopbush]

4. Yep. It's pathetic.

[BComplex]

7. You mean talking snakes that make you eat apples isn't REAL? Aw, come on!

And that Joseph married Mary but he used a condom because he knew an angel was going to show up that had first dibbs?

I truly believe that there was historically a man who was HOLY in the extreme, and a Master and Teacher who was known as something that sounded like the name "Jesus". And I can even believe his lineage would have made him King, if his people had not become oppressed. He jerked a moral and spiritual knot in a whole heckuvalot of people by his teachings and exemplary life, or they wouldn't have made such a fuss, for so many decades, before some were inclined to write down what he had taught.

But what people say, TODAY, about what was written in the books of the Bible that actually made the cut, has been twisted by huge politically conservative donations to seminaries. (Part of the Powell Manifesto's stated intention, to take influence over media, colleges and churches.)

90% of the churches in the south (and I don't know about the rest of the country) preach conservative REPUBLICAN politics from the pulpit. Magical, as opposed to MORAL, thinking is what they feed the masses, and threaten that if you don't have FAITH and BELIEVE what they're telling you, it's because of the snake in the tree that talks to you, and you're going to burn in hell.

They have even convinced a whole bunch of these people that being rich is a sign God loves you; and if you're not rich, then you are somehow fucking up in God's eyes. The absolute opposite of "it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven."

[Walleye]

2. We need to teach critical thinking and how it is different from being judgmental

[alwaysinasnit]

12. Absolutely, and because without critical thinking skills, how can you truly evaluate evidence.

[CloudWatcher]

18. Teaching critical thinking.

Can you imagine the religious response to teaching critical thinking in schools! They would see it as an existential threat.

I await the day when the description "they are a person of faith" is taken as an insult.

[maddiemom]

23. A lot of us have sneaked as many critical thinking skills as we could into our teaching

below the college level. This has been true for many teachers over many years. It is also true that many religious parents are really threatened by their children bringing critical thinking home. They consider it as "indoctrination" in opposing beliefs, rather than just considering all angles and best use of our brains. It's tricky to pull off, especially when more enlightened classmates are less tolerant and patient in their arguments.

[CloudWatcher]

26. Thank you!

Yes I know and thank you! I just wish critical thinking, logic and debate skills were required subjects. When Trump got the GOP nomination, I bemoaned it as a clear failure of our educational system.

[Hekate]

5. KnR

[stopbush]

6. There's a obvious corollary between people believing in the magical thinking

espoused in Christianity and also believing in the magical thinking espoused by RW politicians/media whores et al. Just as Christians believe they are privy to some greater/hidden truth about life and death, so does the religious right believe they are privy to all kinds of “hidden” knowledge, ranging from a willing ignorance of basic facts to embracing and promoting the wildest CTs one can imagine.

That’s why claims of fake news by tRump resonate so deeply with them. That’s why they ignore the counsel of experts in all walks of life - they have the expertise of Jeebuz to count on when things get real.

Who needs the advice of mere mortals when you’ve got god whispering in your ear, or screaming at you from some pulpit, be it religious or bully?

[BComplex]

8. You said it better than I did.

You're spot on.

[shockey80]

9. Religion has always been a problem. It's not the only problem.

I can honestly tell you my parents brought me up in a way back in the 60's, 70's that has all but disappeared. My parents did not make life easy for me. They did not spoil my at all. I was forced to think to think for myself. When I was young my parents would tell me to get the hell out of the house. If you want dinner you no what time dinner is. The only rule they had was, be home when the street lights come home.

My parents never bought me a car. I was lucky if they if they bought me a bike. If I wanted something my parents would tell me, get a paper route and buy it yourself. All of this led me to use critical thinking, how to survive in the real world. Something has changed since I was a kid.

[rusty fender]

10. Oprah was an influential purveyor

of magical thinking with her just-ask-the-universe for what you want and it will grant it to you bullshit

[CloudWatcher]

14. It's the problem of listening to rich people.

Rich folks tend to believe that they've earned their gold and the universe is being good to them for a reason. And that if you were worthy you'd be rich too.

[rusty fender]

22. Exactly!

And they believe that they have been chosen and all the hoi pollio have to do is exactly what the chosen one has done; as if everyone can be an Oprah, sheesh

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

24. Calvanism -nt

[DemoTex]

11. When the Lie is the coin of the realm ..

The Trumpsters are going to spend, spend, spend.

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. Critical thinking may mean the difference between life and death

So many screaming Threads about “mutant” strains and other reports from research that has not been peer reviewed and thus must be considered inconclusive and not worthy of the label “evidence”.

[Evolve Dammit]

15. "Invisible Man in the Sky" George Carlin

[ananda]

16. He is so right.

I would also add confirmation bias as a type
of bad thinking.

[Fiendish Thingy]

17. America was founded on magical thinking - Read "Fantasyland" by Kurt Andersen

Recommended by Lawrence O’Donnell.

[sanatanadharma]

21. Fascinating book; a highly recommended explanation of stupidity in the USA

Yes, the magic thinking of escapism has been part of the American experience from the first puritanical protesting pilgrims, through the 'find gold by kicking the earth with your boot toe' to 'rain follows the plow' promises. The fantasylands of Disney and ticky-tac suburbs grew on the same soil as several great-awakenings and prosperity gospel greed. Marketing and advertising hypnotically sell the fixes you need to make life not-miserable, paving the way to alternative facts, fictional-truths and 'me and mine' trump 'we and thee' thinking.

American's great exceptionalism is little more than the tragedy of inner-child tantrums.

[ehrnst]

19. "We just have to want it enough, and it will become real!!"

Anyone who expresses any doubt whatsoever is the one who CAUSED IT TO FAIL!!"

[ancianita]

20. Not true. We've been LIED TO 4 generations by fake reps, astroturfed "events," bots & troll farms.

I'm not buying what this dude is calling us.


These media guys have to stop hyping all this noise to confound and gaslight Americans, and then turn around and run Blame The Victim games in op-ed and news campaigns.

Our "societal failures" are BY DESIGN. Since the days of Bernays to the days of Chomsky and manufacturing consent.

We know who we are. We are not what we are called. We are ONLY what we answer to.

The ONLY magical thinkers in America are those who

-- own media
-- want their money flow to increase in spite of a deadly global pandemic
-- value their money more then the humans who produce taxes and all their wealth
-- believe that they can tell human beings who they are.

We are the 80% of America that did not vote GOP. And we know who we are. Busy, tired, naive, flawed, sometimes overtrusting liars and incompetents of government to change; yet trustworthy, practical, hard working, fact-based, disciplined, and loving. Including loving ourselves.

But 80% of us? magical thinkers?

Hell no. This guy can try to fool Detroiters into thinking he's got some hand on the pulse, but far as I and most Americans are concerned, we're kickin' HIS magical thinking back to the curb where it belongs. With all the other punditry bullshit about America.

[Locrian]

28. YES - recommended 1000 times

Is it funny how easy he got so many people to believe it's all of "our" magical thinking?


We've been lied to by every "institution" and we've seen them caught in the act. Is it any wonder why trust in just about everything has been shaken to it's core?

Media = propaganda and lies 24/7
Religion = sky gods and money - that is all
Sports = cheating, doping, scandals, money
Politics = "we" do not matter. period. unless you are a $$ donor
Education = gutted, cheating, "the club", etc, for profit over learning
Medical = for profit then kick you to the curb
Police = corruption, blue line, etc
Science = corrupted by money and internal politics, can "buy" any result /spin you want

etc.

[ancianita]

29. Totally. Americans have been swimming in this ocean of noise all their lives. Doesn't make them

magical thinkers one damn bit.

These pundits are not helping. They are part of the problem.

Anyone who thinks magically has always had a chance to commit to fact and truth, so they're not ignorant, at least over the age of 30 they're not. The information is out there for them.

80% of us avail ourselves of that information and build our maps of reality. And we live accordingly. And we won't be swept into bullshit and hype.

[Locrian]

31. we can do anything - if we just get past the gaslighting and stand up

[ancianita]

30. And THANK YOU!

[h2ebits]

25. Spread this to ALL social media

This is a great article. I posted it to "public" on Facebook and sent it to my family members via email because I think it is SO IMPORTANT!

We have taken critical and analytical thinking out of our school systems and it is a loss to generations of people.

Thank you for posting it!!

[BamaRefugee]

27. THINKERS? More a nation of gut feelings. And those guts are stuffed with Funyuns and Mountain Dew.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

32. Great article,thanks

And it's not just my cognitive bias when I said that.

[Wednesdays]

33. In high school, I took a course, "Logic"

...which had a lot in common with the Evidence course the author describes. My class wasn't a course in classical logic like I had in college; the high school class was mostly about identifying logical fallacies. It was one of my most valuable learning experiences.